“Not Harold lady!” Sandy’s abrupt communication woke Samantha from the short nap she’d decided to take. “My Harold say: ‘Bad not Harold come. Ask about not Harold lady. What my Harold do? Lie?’”
Samantha’s Low Silver body shook off any lingering tiredness almost instantly. In the few hours since she’d given her ultimatum she’d moved closer to the Delver’s Outpost and was sheltering in the tree canopy around two miles out. She had anticipated them trying to use Harold as leverage, but she hoped they wouldn’t hurt him in the process. Depending on the situation she could sprint above the canopy with [Cloud Run] and reach him in less than a minute, or get there in less than 10 seconds with [Rift Walk]. “What kind of questions? And are they threatening him with violence?”
After a short pause Sandy replied. “My Harold say: ‘Not hurting yet. Just annoy. How fight you? How hunt you? Questions, questions, questions! Even ask questions now. Must answer quickly. Must tell something.’”
Samantha contemplated what Harold might actually know about her that could be harmful. Anything he gathered from their journey together would be over a decade out of date at this point. “Tell Harold that he’s free to tell the truth. I doubt he knows anything that will give them a big advantage.”
There was a long pause this time. “Confused. But My Harold say: ‘Even that not Harold lady can’t die?’ Now Sandy again! Sandy say: Is true? Can teach? Sandy wants no dying, too!”
How did Harold know about that? She was sure he’d run off every time there was danger. He couldn’t have seen her revive… could he?
“My Harold say: ‘First time. Gulf Buffalo. Looked back and saw. Not Harold lady head crushed. Small tasty friend flattened. Both Dead. Then both find him again! My Harold afraid. Pretend not see. Thought not Harold lady would kill. Big secret.’”
Samantha realized that in her surprise she hadn’t stopped her inner thoughts from transferring through [Liaison]. So, not only did Harold know arguably her greatest secret, she’d just confirmed it to him with her own unintentional questions. If she didn’t have a strong enough motivation to free Harold before, she definitely did now. She needed to figure out what to do with him after he was freed, but for now her priority was keeping that information from getting out.
While it was true that her Rebirth Core made her nearly unkillable–at least permanently–it wasn’t infallible. She only revived once her body was returned to a survivable condition. If this information was known, then having someone on standby to continuously dismember her could prevent her resurrection indefinitely. Or, she could become a victim to the most hellish and cruel of tortures. Ones where the torturer didn’t need to worry about if she died from the inflicted injuries or not. And, of course, there was the worst case scenario of true death. Someone could incinerate her remains to the point where there was nothing left to heal.
“He can tell them anything except that. If Harold so much as hints at it, I’ll be forced to…” Samantha wanted to say something along the lines of ‘forced to take drastic measures’, but didn’t trust that Sandy would translate her words or intent accurately enough. So, she settled for a less subtle threat. “... do bad things.”
“My Harold say: ‘Not worry. Even hid from not Harold lady. Can hide from bad not Harolds too.’”
She was relatively confident her secret was safe since Harold was asking about what to tell his interrogators, but she wouldn’t rely on him to remain tight-lipped if they really pressed him for information. Rather than looking for an opportune moment to reappear over the next day or so, she’d begin her rescue operation within the hour. As soon as her qi pool was topped off she’d make her first move.
----------------------------------------
As Samantha’s spectral eye passed through the clunky metal padlock on the outside of Sandy’s cage she searched for a way to bypass the locking mechanism. She thought she understood the gist of how locks worked. Small pins elevated by springs prevented some parts on the inside of the lock from moving. Pushing those pins down to the correct height–usually with the prongs of a key–would let the pieces move freely. However, apart from that basic knowledge she didn’t have any experience with lockpicking itself. Luckily for her (and Sandy), the inside of the crude lock wasn’t too complicated and she was able to figure out what needed to be done. Poking her ghostly fingers through the lock, she pushed down on the two pins that were preventing a metal piece from sliding with [Telekinesis]. When the pins were fully depressed she used [Telekinesis] on her other hand to slide the newly-freed piece into the ‘open’ position, and then was able to remove the lock from the door.
Unlike Harold, Sandy had been left unguarded after Samantha’s grand departure. The Delvers probably didn’t expect her to try and save a bonded beast first or separately from Harold–at least not like this–and she was happy to take advantage of their oversight. To make things even easier, the stablehand made a concerted effort to avoid being near Sandy unless absolutely necessary. Sandy’s escape would go unnoticed until someone saw her running through the street. That was when the real ‘fun’ would begin.
“Okay Sandy… just like we talked about. The closest wall is directly behind you. Run straight there and over. I’ll take care of the rest.”
Sandy had been practically vibrating with excitement while Samantha fiddled with the lock. As soon as Samantha used [Telekinesis] to pull the cage door smoothly open, Sandy shot out, squeezed herself through an opening in the stable wall that served as a window, and skittered down the open road.
“FREE! Yes! Free, free, free!” Sandy cheered gleefully as she ran.
In a matter of seconds the first sounds of alarm were raised.
“What the–RAPHAEL! THE SPIDER!” One delver screamed out.
The stablehand scrambled to the now-empty cage in reaction to the shout. After taking a split second to process what was happening he rushed over to a nearby bell hanging from a pole and frantically rang it. Samantha could’ve stopped him, but she needed a little chaos to help prove her point later.
As Sandy ran at the speed of a charging horse towards the defensive wall and Delvers poured into the streets to see what the source of the alarm bell was, Samantha cleared the way. The weakest Delvers–such as children or Low Coppers–were quick to dive out of Sandy’s path to avoid being trampled by the several-hundred pound beast. For those that tried to impede the Sand Spider, Samantha sucker punched them with an invisible [Telekinetic Impact]. While the force of the impact was only about as powerful as a Low Bronze’s punch, the fact that it was completely unexpected resulted in anyone struck by it being knocked flat. Even a Peak Bronze who’d been trying to line up a caster shot was incapacitated for a handful of crucial seconds when Samantha hit him square in the nose.
“HA HA!” Sandy cackled in delight. “I’m invincible!”
Sandy began climbing the outer wall and Samantha shifted her focus to the guards atop the wall itself. Now that Sandy was leaving the semi-busy streets inside the outpost the Delvers would feel much more comfortable taking shots at her.
All casters lit up for a moment before firing a beam. It was a weakness everyone was well aware of, and the flaw that Samantha exploited to protect Sandy. With her ability to manifest her form anywhere she could visualize and her ability to see almost completely around herself, she could appear before any would-be attacker at the speed of thought for a preemptive strike. She didn’t hesitate to knock cultivators from the 20 foot tall walls with multiple [Telekinetic Impacts], or knock the casters completely out of mortal’s hands and into the trapped clearing. After the 3rd or 4th Delver was interrupted, they all started caring much more about the hidden enemy than the escaping spirit beast.
As Sandy entered the clearing beyond the outpost walls, Samantha left the Delvers to their confusion and attached herself to Sandy’s back using [Telekinesis]. Sitting in the ‘riding position’, she used a small amount of pressure from her hands to direct Sandy left and right around traps that she noticed with her spiritual sight. They had practiced this briefly while Sandy was caged, but it still took several seconds of trial and error for both of them to coordinate. This resulted in Sandy setting off a few traps at the start, but fortunately all they did was send up beams of light or flares to signal their location. Samantha believed most of the traps to be alarms like this rather than anything damaging, but it was still better to avoid them.
When they successfully made it a short distance into the tree line, Samantha opened a rift to bridge the distance between them. She could have opened it earlier, but she wanted to keep the [Rift Walk]’s true nature a secret from the Delvers if possible. Now not only did the Sand Spider miraculously escape with the help of an invisible attacker, there would also be no trace of where she disappeared to. All traces of her passage would just mysteriously vanish.
Sandy paused just before the open rift. “Sandy change mind! Feels bad. Where not Harold lady? Sandy walk instead!”
“I don’t want you to be followed by the Delvers or attacked by other spirit beasts. Just go through!” Samantha urged.
“No! Sandy okay. Sandy strong! Also. Not Harold lady protect. Make invincible! Right?” Sandy backed away from the tear in space as she spoke.
Samantha wracked her brain for a way to convince the spider to cross the threshold. Desperate, she settled for one of the most childish tricks in the book.
“Silas! Please hop back and forth between the sides of the rift. Sandy is too scared to cross.”
Delighted by the opportunity to look strong and tough, Silas didn’t question the odd request at all. He drew himself up proudly, puffed up his chest and tail, and strutted confidently through the rift. He gave Sandy what Samantha knew to be the equivalent of a patronizing smirk, then crossed back over to the other side. Then, he did it again. Sandy’s reaction was so immediate that Samantha didn’t even have to prod her.
“Ah!” Sandy cried, aghast. “The small tasty mocks Sandy? Call Sandy weak! Sandy show!”
Sandy took a slow, tentative step forward. As soon as her front leg crossed the threshold to the other side of the rift she shook briefly as if she were shivering. Then, she flung the rest of herself through the rift with such speed that she almost tripped over her own legs. Once Sandy was fully on the other side Samantha closed the rift, thus completing the first rescue in full.
Now, for the more challenging extraction…
Given Samantha’s strength and resources, she had no shortage of options when determining the best way to free Sandy. On one extreme, she could probably have fought off the entire outpost with Tobias’s and Silas’s help. On the other extreme, she had all manner of enticing valuables she probably could’ve negotiated or bartered with even considering how she’d left things earlier. She opted for this more moderate method for multiple reasons, but primarily it was because it would serve as a great example of her capabilities for her upcoming appearance. She hoped that all this would say ‘I didn’t even need to show myself for this. Do you really want to see what happens when I do?’. The more evidence she could give the Delvers that they were outmatched by her, the less desirable forcing her into a bloody conflict would be. She’d much rather leave them with broken noses and wounded pride than freshly dug graves.
Checking her qi she had 521.1/ 669.6 remaining in her pool, meaning she used just shy of 150 qi during this latest excursion. Not bad, all things considered. With [Sage’s Rumination] bringing her regeneration to over 200 qi/hour, she could make her final visit to the outpost while the effects from this latest victory were still fresh in everyone’s minds. That would help her case even more.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Sandy walked up to Samantha’s physical body which was sitting cross-legged on the ground nearby. “Not Harold lady?” She extended her foreleg–as if she was about to jostle a sleeping person awake–and before Samantha quite understood what was happening Sandy pressed the tip of her leg into her shoulder and lightly pushed. Samantha’s body proceeded to bonelessly flop over into the dirt, and Silas promptly started laughing at her.
“Oops! Sandy mistake. Sandy fix!”
Sandy tried to pick Samantha back up and lean her against a tree, but this only served to drag her face down through the dirt. This pushed Silas into hysterics, to the point where he actually had to look away to catch his breath.
“Why haven’t I ever thought of pushing you over?” he lamented. “I’ve wasted so many chances!”
The sight was so baffling that she didn’t think to return to her body right away, but Silas’s words broke the brief hold that the scene had on her. Once she canceled [Spectral Projection] she was quick to spit out dirt and brush debris out of her hair.
“Remember the peace treaty we made in the rift? My soul being outside my body surely falls under the agreed upon protections,” Samantha stated. She was referring to when they started the ‘game’ of randomly attacking each other in the cultivation chamber. They both eventually had to agree that certain activities were guaranteed safe times (such as sleeping or eating) since otherwise it was too disruptive.
“Darn. You’re right,” Silas admitted with obvious disappointment.
When Samantha was finished sitting upright and fixing her disheveled appearance Sandy cheered.
“Yay! Sandy fix!”
It wasn’t even worth the effort to correct or reprimand her. Samantha knew that she didn’t mean any harm by it, so she just glossed over it to make everything easier. “I’m here, Sandy. What is it?”
“Oh! Yes. Important words! Got distracted. My Harold say: ‘Need help. Moving my Harold into rift. Bad not Harolds say not Harold lady can’t reach. Has ssspeeecialll lock. Hurry.’”
Samantha hesitated for a moment. Her next choice could potentially ruin everything. She didn’t know what would happen if the Delvers took Harold into the rift, but they seemed confident he would be untouchable afterwards. She couldn’t let that happen.
She had been prepared to use [Rift Walk] if Harold were about to be tortured. In that case, the rift’s public and unsettling formation would’ve been useful as an intimidation tactic for her. In this case, its sudden appearance would only speed the Delvers’ flight into the rift. In the seconds it took for the tear to form, they could already have spirited Harold away. There was also the issue of where to open the exit portal. Outside the building would, again, give the Delvers too much time to fend her off, but she also had no idea who or what was inside the warded area. Opening a rift blindly like that could result in any number of unintended consequences.
She ran through several alternative options in a blink. Then, for better or for worse, made her decision.
She projected directly to the Outpost’s central hall without even giving Sandy a reply. She slammed her spiritual body into the ward with all of her might, resorting to utilizing her ‘shade form’ when it didn’t break as quickly as she wanted it to. The brittle barrier completely shattered under the assault of her claws and fangs, and she immediately flew downwards to enter into the hidden space below.
“She’s broken the barrier! Hurry up!”
“How did she get word so quickly? What have you–”
Samantha moved towards the voices through various rooms and cells until she found their source in a large, stone chamber. Lit with qi-lanterns that were flashing between red and orange, the entire room almost looked like it was set aflame. In the center of it was a familiar looking tear in space, which to her spiritual sight was a roiling mass of condensed qi. Still, even with the way that the ambient qi was whipped into a frenzy around the rift, she couldn’t help but feel like this one was much, much weaker compared to the one she’d recently left. Seeing as Harold was being actively dragged towards the opening she didn’t have any time to consider it further.
The shackled alchemist was kicking and thrashing against the two guards on either side of him, and was mere moments away from being sucked into the isolated space. Though it didn’t seem to be doing him much good, he was clearly giving his best effort. Walter watched the trio’s progress from a short distance away, looking at the flashing lanterns and speaking into a communication talisman in his hand.
Not pulling her punches in any aspect now, she began opening a rift in an unoccupied area nearby and launched herself at the stronger of the two guards–a Peak Copper by the feel of her aura. Everyone paused for a beat at the ominous feeling of space tearing open, and with that opening she used a [Telekinetic Impact] to sucker punch the Delver in the throat. Her entire upper body bent backwards from the force before she completely fell prone. Letting go of Harold at some point to clutch at her neck, she began gasping for air while tears filled her eyes.
She launched another [Telekinetic Impact] towards the other guard’s groin, hoping the shock of it would also completely debilitate the man. Before the strike made contact, however–or perhaps just as the strike made contact–the guard’s arm shot forward and the two men disappeared.
She had been too late. Too slow.
As Walter moved to check on the downed guardswoman Samantha’s rift snapped open. He flinched back slightly from the burst of force and sound, but shifted his body position to shield the woman from a potential attack. Looking more closely into the opened tear, his eyes widened briefly before he started to smirk. Beyond it was Samantha, flanked by two spirit beasts and sitting in the lotus position.
She canceled [Spectral Projection] and opened her eyes to stare back at him through the conjoined space. Then, she slowly stood and crossed the threshold with Sandy and Silas in tow. As soon as she entered the new area she was assaulted by Walter’s killing intent, and his smirk grew more prominent. That was, until she unveiled a killing intent of her own and the rift snapped shut behind her.
“Silver?!”
His paltry aura was washed away by the overwhelming flood of power she was producing. With her mythic cycling pattern bolstering her qi pool and regeneration, and by extension her qi defenses and offense, she blew through his half-formed resolve with the true fury that raged through her. His face turned pale and he began to sweat as her determination settled heavily atop him. The qi within his dantian became sluggish and fearful.
That irritating, self-satisfied grin was nowhere to be seen, now.
“H-He’s gone! I couldn’t get him back from the other side of the rift even if I wanted to, so you won’t be able to pull off tricks like earlier. They won’t come out until after reinforcements arrive–a company of Silvers, mind you. They were meant to take down whatever creatures you attacked our people with, but they’re capable enough to handle you too. So, don’t–”
A flailing body being forcefully ejected from the rift halted both Walter and Samantha in their tracks. It plopped gracelessly on the floor between them, floundering wildly, and they couldn’t help but mutually gawk at the sight.
Walter whipped the communication talisman up to his face. “Get a medic in here now!”
----------------------------------------
Harold found himself whisked away into an unfamiliar environment. All around him was some sort of… crop. He didn’t know what kind, but the fact that they were evenly spaced and aligned in neat, straight rows made it obvious they were being cultivated by someone. The stalks were very tall–which blocked his view of pretty much anything else in the vicinity–but he imagined the place was dreadful. Even lacking knowledge on this particular plant, he could tell at a glance that all of the visible stalks were afflicted with the same rot or disease. The kind that a farmer would need to take care of swiftly lest they lose the entire harvest, and that wouldn’t be allowed to spread to this degree unless the farmer was stupid, careless, or preoccupied by some greater conflict. Judging by the heavy stench of smoke in the air, he’d bet money on the latter.
A sob and groan from the ground drew his attention to his kidnapper. The man was curled into a ball and gripping desperately between his legs with both hands. It was a position any man would recognize. The guard looked up at him with a mixture of shock, pain, bewilderment, and anger. Between gritted teeth the man squeaked out a single-word accusation: “Honorless”.
Realizing his turn of good fortune, Harold gave the man a wicked smile before kicking him in the face. Hard. “I sure am.”
The guard was clutching his face instead of his groin now, which gave Harold a splendid idea. Activating [Secretion], he poured the substance over the man’s hands and head while immediately hardening it. Before his captor even understood what was happening, his hands were firmly cemented to his head. It likely wouldn’t hold up forever against the High Copper’s concerted efforts to free himself, but it’d buy Harold some time to get his bearings.
“What is this?” the guard asked between pained cries. He was trying to pull his hands away from his face repeatedly without success. “And where are we?”
That second question caused Harold to raise an eyebrow. How should he know where they were when they were the ones who brought him here? But, he didn’t respond. He didn’t owe the guard anything.
Rather than continue to listen to pitiful wimpers, Harold got busy locating the key to his shackles and freed himself. Then he locked the shackles onto the guard and threw the key in a random direction as hard as he could. However, the strangest thing happened before it got more than 20 feet away. It bounced off of seemingly nothing before falling back down into the field.
Huh.
Walking over to the approximate spot the key had bounced, he discovered the culprit was some sort of invisible wall. As soon as he touched it a System message appeared in his mind.
Non-Ascendant detected in entry zone!
You can only begin an Ascendant scenario when solely Ascendants are present.
Would you like to eject all non-Ascendants and start the scenario? Y/N
Well, well, well. Would you look at that? It must be my lucky day.
He followed along the wall looking for a way out, but it seemed as though he was completely sealed in. He also tried contacting Sandy through their binding thread, but she felt… far. Incomprehensibly distant.
I’m on my own from here, then.
The approaching clanking of metal chains forewarned him of the incoming guard. Harold looked behind him to see the infuriated High Copper hobbling towards him at an impressive pace. Hardened chunks of [Secretion] were stuck in his hair and on his face still, and his skin looked raw where he had to forcibly peel off the substance, but he’d recovered faster than anticipated.
Harold tsked in irritation.
The guard moved to grab Harold by the collar with both hands–a favorite ‘intimidation’ tactic of his–and Harold allowed it. If experience could be trusted, the guard would get in Harold’s face and start yelling next. That would be the perfect opportunity. Sure enough, the guard pulled Harold in so close that he could smell the day-old liquor on his breath.
“You think I’ll let you make a fool of– ARGH!”
Harold used his newest bond ability [Spit Venom] and sprayed the guard’s entire face with painful poison. It wouldn’t kill him, but Harold wanted him alive anyway. If he couldn’t gather information by exploring the area due to the invisible wall, he’d need to question the only other person here.
The High Copper scrambled away and tried to wipe the liquid from his face, but it only served to spread the burning sensation to his hands and arms. He became more and more frantic as the pain increased, and Harold had to suppress his frustration at the sound. Did this man ever shut up?
“You ascendants are the worst!” the man snarled. “I swear I’ll kill you. Forget Walter’s orders!”
Harold kicked the temporarily blinded man in the ribs as hard as he could, knocking him over onto the ground. For good measure he stomped down on the man’s hands to hopefully break some fingers.
“...Not if I kill you first,” Harold stated happily. “But before that I have a few questions for you.”
Harold pulled a loose thread on a seam of his robe and a tiny hidden vial filled with liquid fell into his hand. Pulling another thread, he caught an even tinier vial of powder. Mixing them together briefly, he poured the concoction over an open cut on the man’s face to introduce it into the bloodstream. The guard quickly showed signs of sluggishness and uncoordinated movements in all four extremities.
“Now then, my first question is…”
Many long minutes of interrogation later–cathartic for Harold and agonizing for the guard–Harold extracted all knowledge he could. It seemed his ascendant status had changed the rift experience these delvers had been expecting, which meant anything the delver told him was of minimal helpfulness. Still, it was preferable to nothing at all. He was more than capable of figuring the rest out on his own.
“I suppose it’s time we part ways!” Harold said as he gathered a large pool of [Secretion] in his cupped hands.
The guard only groaned.
Harold unceremoniously dumped the liquid across the entirety of the guard’s face and hardened it. The man tried to swipe it away, but Harold’s poison was still preventing him from moving his limbs as he wanted.
“If your friends manage to scrape that out of your airways before you suffocate, tell them that I will make every one of you regret treating me and Sandy like this.”
Harold touched the invisible wall and the notification reappeared.
Non-Ascendant detected in entry zone!
You can only begin an Ascendant scenario when solely Ascendants are present.
Would you like to eject all non-Ascendants and start the scenario? Y/N
He selected yes.